“That We All May Be One,” of course, also has interfaith implications. Not that we seek “one world religion,” but that we must honor one another, come to understand one another better, and cooperate where we can for the common good. Jews and Christians have made enormous strides since the horror of the Shoah, and yet often find our relationships strained these days around the intractable problems in the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine.
I had a difficult, but ultimately productive, meeting yesterday with leaders at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. This is the educational arm associated with the Museum of Tolerance, the New York Tolerance Center, and the Center for Human Dignity in Jerusalem. It puts the Holocaust in context with other instances of genocide, violence and terrorism in modern history and is very powerful.
How difficult it is to assure our Jewish sisters and brothers that we are absolutely committed to the existence and security of the state of Israel, that we decry any effort to deny the reality of the Shoah, that we stand against any and all forms of anti-Semitism and certainly violence against Jews — while yet standing with our Arab and Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters in seeking a two-state solution and a shared city of Jerusalem with access to the holy sites for any and all through the land we all call holy!
Difficult, but worth doing. For, it is the only way forward toward peace and justice for all!
That We All May Be One 
February 6, 2007 at 7:55 pm |
I would agree that a two state solution is the best solution for peace and justice that we can see right now. However, we can’t get to a two state solution until the PA both eschews violence against Israel and ceases to push for the destruction of Israel and until the PA cracks down on those within their borders who plan and carry out terrorist activities (or “martyrdom” activities) against Israel. Only when the PA government has a monoply on force (as opposed to each group having its own armed militia) and is willing to use that force to help protect Israel from attack from within the PA territories will the Palestinians be worth of a state. Until then, giving them the authority of a state and the power of a state will only decrease peace and justice in the region.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
February 7, 2007 at 12:08 am |
Well, it’s a two-way street. Violence must be ceased on both sides. And everyone needs to get back to the negotiating table. The Quartet needs to get its act together and pressure all sides to sit down together again. The “road map” is only that — a map. Someone has to get the car out of the garage and start again on the journey!